There are many applications in which it is required to apply a level of management in respect of wireless communications resources and the management of information, particularly between a moving platform and a remote recipient, and maintain adequate wireless communications therebetween for safe operation of the moving platform and mission success.
For example, in the case of aerial vehicles and, more particularly, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), there is an ongoing and stringent requirement to maintain an adequate communication link between the aerial vehicle and a ground station, for example, and unexpected loss or degradation of such a communication link, can be catastrophic.
A UAS is composed of three main parts, the unmanned air vehicle (UAV), unmanned control station (UCS) and support systems of the UAS (for pre-mission planning). A UAS Mission System may be composed of the following functional components/subsystems: Mission Management, Communications, Vehicle Health, Navigation System, Airspace Integration, Payload and Power Management. Multiple, different dynamic in-mission planners may reside in one or more of the above-mentioned functional components/subsystems. In a typical UAV, a dynamic route planner generates a new route, in real time, when there is a change in the operational environment, e.g. severe weather, pop-up threat, or a change of circumstances, e.g. an emergency, or a dynamic manoeuvre plan is generated to avoid an airborne obstacle. The aim is thus to maintain safety and the survivability of the aircraft by determining a feasible route and/or manoeuvre in real time, while avoiding pop-up, static and dynamic obstacles, for example.
However, the operational environment of moving platforms, at least in some applications, can be particularly challenging from a communications perspective, and it would be desirable to provide an intelligent communications management system that is able to adapt and respond dynamically to unplanned events, such as link degradation or failure, new operational constraints, or changes in mission priorities, in order to meet pre-planned mission objectives during mission execution.
For example, in the case of a moving platform system such as an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), it may be determined, during mission execution, that two nodes are not optimally oriented with respect to each other to achieve a required information exchange, or the quality of the communications link between them is constrained due to interference, for example. In other applications, such as mobile phone networks, it is not unusual for a user to find themselves at a location where they have no, or minimal, mobile network signal, due to interference for example. It would therefore be desirable to change the orientation of the platform with respect to another node, or the location of the user, in order to optimise communications.
US2014/0142787 describes a method and system onboard a UAV for enabling it to choose a flight path in the event of an in-flight contingency (e.g engine out or jamming) that forces a diversion or unplanned landing. The new flight path is selected to maintain communications during contingency operations. However, the new flight plan is based entirely on the in-flight contingency and a database of static constraints available to the UAV communications system. The UAV may have no choice but to perform a node manoeuvre, and the system is designed to try and plan the path of the manoeuvre to maintain communications, but this does not take into account situations in which a node manoeuvre may be just one possible way of solving a communications issue and its suitability may need to be assessed against the over-arching mission goals.